ComaBoyRunning RSS Feed

New York Half Marathon

ComaBoy Running — 2009-08-17T17:46:46-04:00

Famously, New York was nearly the death of me on one visit and I was determined, if nothing more, than to survive this adventure in the Big Apple. Earlier in the year there was much debate as to whether Angelo and I could run both he New York and Athens Marathons given that there was but a week between them. After much deliberation we sensibly decided that it might be a little too adventurous and settles on making Athens our autumnal run. However, the idea of running New York had long been germinating and so the Half seemed too good a chance to pass up.

As tourists to New York the weather - in the 90s and +80% humidity - made the city hard work but as a pasty Brit with a knee injury who runs in the damp cold they were c

Central Park, Time Square, Ground Zero

A call to bring the fun back into running

ComaBoy Running — 2009-07-15T17:15:51-04:00

I started off as all first timers do with a baggy shirt, old shorts and white socks and these quite merrily got me by for the first few months of my fledgling running career. Blue tops were mixed with red shorts, faded bands from long forgotten concerts rubbed up against brash Bermuda shorts and not a second thought was given to style. It felt great just to be out in the open.

We're creatures of inquisitive temptation however. It starts with something innocuous - perhaps a technical tops, maybe some shorts or simply a pair wicking socks - but quickly you're hooked. Cottom is simply no longer good enough and soon we're needing compression, water belts, gel packs and a thousand other additions. Once addicted I didn't know where to stop. I ended up being dressed in so much black Lycra that I looked like a gay Nazi Power Ranger!

We have to be frank and say that Lycra is no friend to those with an extra inch to give and the blind generosity to give it. Who of us hasn't seen the bouncing pendulous buttocks of a super-sized runner and dared ask if we also have a rear that also resembles two ageing amorous sea-lions? How must we look from such an angle we've asked?

Let me tell you and let me be brutally honest...quite simply you look awful. Simply awful. It's not your fault; I look awful too! We all look awful! In fact, there's no-one for which Lycra was their signature style and there's not one of the six billion people on Earth for which Lycra will ever be the first choice. It's too harsh. It strips back. It lethally reveals. It does everything to expose and embarrass the things we otherwise go to such pains to hide.

But we can't blame Lycra for all of these sins. It plays its role and has become a vital part of any runners wardrobe. It's a great material for doing all the things that active people want it to do and it does them so ruthlessly well. Anyone who has run in a wicking top would never choose to go back to a heavy cotton t-shirt.

But is it purely function over form? There's no doubt that it's a great material but I think it's more than that. It's a badge of honour and a statement that we've arrived. There's no doubting the snobbish voyeurism of it all; the very fact that it reveals and shouts so loudly is the perverse reason we wear it. As we run through the park it's telling the old us that we've changed and those around us that we mean business. It's all about pace, splits, max and min, bpm and in a lot of ways - and it's a hushed secret - it's just not as fun as when we just ran for the pure joy of it.

Don't get me wrong, I still love running and all the techno-wizardry adds much to it but I can't help feeling that I've lost a bit by becoming a 'Lycra Whore'. A call to arms therefore and a promise to the old me - you were wheezy, you were slow and frankly you were a bit of a slob - but you also didn't care what people thought and you did ran for the fun of it. There's a lot I am thankful to have left in the past but the next time I run, I think a little of the old me should come along for the ride. For one weekend therefore, you and I are going to forget about training and run for the simple fun of it. Union Jack shorts and ACDC top....you're time has come again!

A runner at the London Marathon takes up my call!

Taking inspiration from others

ComaBoy Running — 2009-07-12T09:13:45-04:00

When do we become a runner?

I don’t remember a point at which I became known as ‘the runner’ amongst my friends but I know the point at which I became one in my own mind; the last two miles of my first race.

In every sense of the world I shouldn’t have been there; a few years before I’d been given the last rites, six months before I could barely run a mile and six days before I’d struggled to make it to 10 miles before collapsing. On paper, this stumbling, over striding diabetic sloshing Lucozade and tangled in headphone cables was about as far from an elegant and efficient human as you could get but, having come so far, there was no way that I was going to stop until I’d crossed the finishing line.

This week I took part in the JP Morgan 5.5k race around Battersea Park with my work colleagues. To be honest we were a ragtag army of various sizes, shapes and abilities and we knew that we weren’t going to trouble the faster teams. For instance, one of our team hadn’t ran in 25 years and was adamant that she was going to walk. When we reached the start line she started a very gentle jog - “just the first few hundred metres” she said - but a few hundred became a kilometre, one became two, which soon become four and before we all knew it, she was almost home. I’ve never seen someone so proud of what they have achieved as when she crossed the finishing line. In every sense of the words she’d done something fantastically wonderful.

I realised then that it’s determination that sets the runner apart from the jogger. It has nothing to do with the number of times we run, the number of races we enter or how far we run, the moment you become a runner is the moment you take that step beyond what you know and keep going even though every cell of your body is telling you to stop.

I’ve honestly learnt more about myself though running than through any psychologist, self-help tape or lofty discussion. For me, running has taught me a resilience I simply didn’t have before and a confidence to know that, whilst times are tough and difficult, if I just keep going that I will reach my goals. and if you go for it you’ll will be able to achieve things you never thought werepossible.